Senate wants vocational centres empowered to curb street begging | EduCeleb
Ahmed Iyanda
4th October 2019
Nigerian Senate has charged the Federal Government on the promulgation of a policy to use vocational education to curb street begging.
This is against the backdrop of what some legislators termed the menace of corporate beggars across the country.
With particular reference to the Almajiri who go about begging on the streets to survive, they wanted more decisive action taken.
The Senate said this would discourage the destitute children from street begging.
Legislators hoped to address the menace of street begging and rehabilitate the beggars.
Senator Sankara Abdullahi led the debate along with 26 other senators on the floor of the upper legislative chambers.
In his lead debate, Mr Abdullahi, worried about the increasing number of beggars everywhere.
He noted that this does not only affect geographical and social structure of urban areas, it also portrays the country in a bad image to tourist and foreign investors.
He said the phenomenon takes a heavy toll on the lives of teenagers, who engage in the act and and are therefore are out of school.
Senators, who spoke on the motion described street begging as a major challenge.
The senate therefore called on the federal government to set up vocational training centres to provide beggars with alternative means of livelihood thereby making
useful to society.
Contributing to the motion, Sen Rochas Okorocha (APC-Imo) said  beggars in the country should not be neglected, noting that they should be supported and assisted to survive.
He said there was need to consider their plight given their disadvantage positions in society.
He said there were time bomb waiting to explode, if left unattended to,noting that efforts must be made to salvage them especially in education.
Sen. Sabi Abdullahi, (APC-Niger) also corroborated others on the need to salvage the rising sorry state of beggars in the country.